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Summary

The LABSEA experiment was a test of the Georgia Tech scanning polarimetric microwave radiometer and its ability to measure ocean surface winds. The radiometer was flown on the NASA DC-8 in January 1997 over a site in the Labrador Sea that contained a moored instrument platform. The moored platform collected various data including wind speed and direction, air and water temperatures, barometric pressure, and directional wave spectra. The original request for dropsondes was for the use of the LOD2 Omega system but in further conversations with the PI it was determined that near-surface wind measurements were critical to the experiment. The near-surface winds measured by Omega are not very highly resolved because of the long smoothing interval (240 sec) required for the noisy Omega data. SSSF was able to put together a two-channel GPS dropsonde system for use on this project that provided the necessary boundary-layer wind measurements with high resolution and accuracy.